The Opposition on Saturday described the Union Budget as one offering "band-aid for bullet wounds" and said the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre was only trying to woo voters in Bihar and Delhi through the announcements.
While Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi said the Centre was "bankrupt of ideas" and needed a paradigm shift to solve the economic crisis, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the government was busy garnering praises for the Budget when the entire country was struggling with inflation and unemployment.
Kharge -- the Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha -- claimed the budget was an attempt to "dupe" the people and described it as "nau sau choohe khake billi hajj ko chali" -- a Hindi proverb that means seeking to be pious after committing a number of sins.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced significant Income Tax cuts for the middle class and unveiled a blueprint for next generation reforms as she looked to shore up a slowing economy amid global uncertainties.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the "people's budget" that put more money in the hands of the common public.
"This budget is a force-multiplier. This budget will increase savings, investments, consumption and growth," the prime minister said in a televised message.
Bharatiya Janata Party president JP Nadda hailed the budget as a "visionary roadmap" that embodied the aspirations of 140 crore Indians and lit the way towards Modi's Viksit Bharat vision.
The Opposition, however, said the sops to the middle class had come long after they suffered the brunt of high taxes and price rise.
"A band-aid for bullet wounds! Amid global uncertainty, solving our economic crisis demanded a paradigm shift," Gandhi said in a post on X.
The Congress criticised the budget as bereft of a cure to the "illnesses" of stagnant real wages, lack of buoyancy in mass consumption, sluggish rates of private investment, and a complicated GST system that the economy was suffering from.
It accused the Modi government of appearing to offer a "bonanza" to Bihar, governed by National Democratic Alliance (NDA) partner Nitish Kumar, and "cruelly" ignoring Andhra Pradesh, another pillar of the same alliance.
In a post in Hindi on X, Kharge said the Modi government collected Rs 54.18 lakh crore in Income Tax from the middle class in the past 10 years and exemption was now being given to those earning up to Rs 12 lakh.
"The entire country is struggling with inflation and unemployment but the Modi government is bent on garnering false praises," he said.
In this "announcement-making" budget, Make in India was changed to the National Manufacturing Mission to hide its flaws, Kharge said.
There was no roadmap to double farmers' income and no concession in GST rates on agricultural inputs, he added.
Former finance minister P Chidambaram said Sitharaman was "walking on the worn-out path and not willing to break free, as we did in 1991 and 2004".
Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said there was nothing for West Bengal in the budget.
"There is nothing for the common people. They have presented the budget with the upcoming Bihar elections in mind. Last time as well, all announcements were for Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. Elections in Andhra Pradesh are over, the Bihar polls are coming, so the state is in focus," the Diamond Harbour MP told reporters.
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam MP Dayanidhi Maran called the budget a "big letdown", especially for the middle class. "The finance minister claims she is giving tax exemption up to Rs 12 lakh but the very next line was that there is a 10 per cent tax slab for Rs 8 to Rs 10 lakh income."
"Since elections in Bihar are coming, there were a lot of announcements for Bihar, again fooling the state's people," he added.
Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav said the budget figures meant nothing when the government was unable to provide an accurate number of the people who had died or were missing in the Maha Kumbh stampede.
"Today, the number of those who died in the Maha Kumbh stampede are more important than the budget figures. The government is unable to provide the number of those who lost their lives," he told reporters outside Parliament.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin said the budget was "biased" in completely ignoring his state and added that it betrayed the people's expectations.
Despite putting forward several demands, the Centre did not seem to have the heart to confirm at least one, he alleged.
Maharashtra, which contributes the highest tax revenue, found no mention in the finance minister's budget speech, Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Aaditya Thackeray said and called it an insult to the state.
His party MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said the budget gave something to the middle class that Sitharaman had previously ignored.
"This is a victory of our fight and the voices that we raised, the middle class raised. But I don't think this budget fully meets everyone's expectations. Farmers are still protesting for a minimum support price and, despite changes in procurement, their struggles persist," she said.
Women face high inflation, job losses, and there is a lack of opportunities for youngsters, she added.
The Communist Party of India-Marxist politburo said in a statement that the budget was a "cruel betrayal" of the requirements of the people.
"Instead of addressing the root cause of the demand problem being faced by so many sectors of the economy, the lack of purchasing power in the hands of large sections of the population because of mass unemployment and shrinking wages, the Modi government, through the budget, is seeking to stimulate the economy by giving tax cuts to the small minority with higher incomes even as expenditures are cut," it said.
The hypocrisy of the government is symbolised by its measly allocations for a right, which is a lifeline for the rural poor, the MNREGA, the Left party added.
Former finance minister Yashwant Sinha said, "People don't have money to spend... If concession was given on GST, it would have benefitted the markets and consumption increased. The concession on Income Tax will have limited benefits, I don't think that markets will benefit a lot with this."
"Only six crore people are going to benefit from the concession in Income Tax. It is meagre in a big economy like ours," he added.
The CPI's national secretariat said the budget neglected the challenges faced by the Indian economy.
"Rising unemployment, inflation, increasing inequality and regional disparities are some of the major issues faced by the Indian people but the budget fails to address them," it said.
NDA partner and Union minister Chirag Paswan asked the opposition to support the bills proposing simultaneous elections to end the debate over budgets allegedly favouring poll-bound states after Sitharaman announced a host of development initiatives for Bihar.
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